Tag: wedding photography basics

Prepare for bad weather.

As a Scotland wedding photographer, you need to make sure that you get to prepare for bad weather as much as possible. Bad weather during outdoor shoots will always be an ominous possibility and it is the kind of thing that you should always try to go ahead and prepare for in all of the best and worst ways.

Shooting outdoors means that you will be under the mercy and whim of mother nature and this can be very difficult to bank your hopes on, to say in the very least. You need to make sure that at the end of the day, you have all of the tools that you could ever need. Without the right kinds of tools, things can easily spiral out of control and this is not something that you will be able to afford to happen to you, especially if you are still fairly new to the industry and you haven’t really established yourself all that much just yet.

Protect your gear by always getting a stash of 1-gallon Ziploc bags whenever you are out and about.

You have no idea how these resealable bags can come in handy in the event of bad weather. When you have several bags stashed, you can just whip them out and slide them on to your cameras and no one will be the wiser. Cameras are something that are highly sensitive to dust, rain, and just about any other foreign element out there. You need to make sure that you get to have what it takes to protect it and shield it from damage and the bags will get to do that for you.

Protect your skin.

You also need to protect your skin if you are going to be out all day as someone’s Scotland wedding photographer. Put on some sunblock. Being outside, even when it isn’t really all that sunny out there, will put you at risk of being exposed to the sun’s harmful UV rays. You need to make sure that you get to go ahead and smear on a protective layer of sunblock to help protect you from it as much as possible. It is always so much better for you to be safe than sorry. Try to take note of that all of the time. You don’t even have to slather it all over your body if you don’t want to. At least try to put some on your face so that you don’t get too much damage over your exposure from the sun. Most of the weddings will usually last for long hours. This means that you are going to be under the sun for prolonged periods of time as well. You might as well make sure that you are protected enough from it.

Bring along a roll of white sheet for the bride to step on when posing outdoors.

Outdoor shoots always put the bridal dress at risk of getting soiled or of getting dirty and this is something that you need to go ahead and protect your bride against at the end of the day. Go for something that is made of waterproof material such as tarpaulin and the like.

Optimize site the right way.

One of the most useful SEO for a photographer tips that you will ever get your hands on as a newbie or as someone who is just starting out is the aspect of optimizing your website the right way. A fully optimized website has a far more better chance of getting relevant traffic as opposed to a website that is not really all that optimized when it all comes down to it. There have been tons and tons of tricks used by website owners to make sure that their websites are optimized the right way but as of right this moment, the best way for you to ensure that your website is optimized to the best of its capacity is to make sure that you constantly pump high quality content up all of the time.

Original content is the best way to go right now.

This can be a bit of a challenge in the first few times that you will be doing it but it is something that will turn out to be well worth the effort when you come to think about it at the end of the day. Search engine optimization looks and sounds like a daunting topic to go through with at first but for as long as you have your basics down pat, you should be at a pretty good place.

Work on getting your hands on the best search friendly keywords out there.

This is a great strategy for every SEO for a photographer newbie. There are actually a lot of online tools and even host programs that let you get a glimpse into the kind of keywords that are currently trending in your particular industry. Try to find out about this as much as possible. Bring in some hours for research. Search up the most used keywords in your particular niche or industry so that you will know which ones to use when you are writing content up. It would also be wise if you can go ahead and more or less plan your blog content around this. It will not be easy.

It can tend to be technical.

If you aren’t really that much of an expert when it comes to things like these, it’s OK, you can always outsource it but make sure that you still get to oversee the quality of the blog posts that you are putting up. They should be 100% original and the keywords should not be overkill when it all comes down to it. It can be very easy just leave things up to chance but if you are quite keen on succeeding in what you do, you should be hands on with everything.

Refrain from using flash in all of your websites.

Flash and SEO just don’t go hand in hand. For some reason, search engines are having a hard time profiling websites that are based on flash and this can be a major let down for you especially if you are looking into getting more traffic to your site so that you can convert them into actual bookings. Just get rid of any flash content on your site and you should be just fine.

Check things through ahead of time

Before you take in any agreement or before you close any deal as a wedding photographer for anyone’s wedding, you need to make sure that you get to check things through ahead of time. You can’t just get into something without knowing exactly what you are getting into. This is usually a recipe for disaster and this is usually how things turn sour or take a turn for the worst when it all comes down to it.

Set the tone and foundation

You need to make sure that no matter what happens, you get to set the tone and a good foundation for a great working relationship with your clients. Although the deals you make as a wedding photographer will usually be one time deals and you will not likely work with these clients again, the amount of possibilities that can flourish out of deals like these are tremendous so you should be wise enough not to take anyone or anything for granted. Always make time to meet up with your potential clients and go over everything in detail.

Know what they need

There are some couples who require specific things to be observed by their official wedding photographer. You need to let them know that they need to map everything out to you so that you can be aware of these things and so that you don’t end up embarrassing them or yourself all throughout the process or all throughout the time that you are covering as their wedding photographer.

Figure out if they are religious or if they come from a certain culture where there are set or specific practices that need to be observed during the wedding. Couples will usually say things like these right out but then again, it is always important for you to make sure that you get to initiate the conversation. Be proactive, not reactive. Be ahead of the game. If you can be ten steps ahead of the game, then it will be even better.

Know the schedule ahead

There is also the issue of the schedule that you need to take care of. Some shoots such as the engagement shoot, the bridal shoot, the couple shoot, and so on and so forth are scheduled on a different day other than the actual or the main wedding day. You need to make sure that you go over this with your clients to make them aware of the other things that they need to prepare for as well. Some people might be a little too busy and that is why you need to give them enough heads up to go over things so that they can prepare for it and possibly clear their schedule as well during the process.

Lay out ground rules

Another reason why the client meeting is very important is because of the need for you to lay out the ground rules for the deal. Topics like pricing, breakdown of services or of inclusions in your packages as a wedding photographer are important and the client needs to know everything all throughout. Don’t leave any stone unturned.

Stay out of the way

In order for wedding photographers to be effective in their craft, they need to make it a point to really stay out of the way as much as possible when they are out shooting weddings. Staying out of the way or staying way below the radar can actually turn out to be so much more work than you would actually think. There is a whole science behind that, actually.

Although the fact remains that you will not really be able to perfect all of those things all in one go, it can help a lot if you at least get a few pointers to take note of that can help speed the process of learning up a bit for you. Try to observe what the other wedding photographers are doing during the weddings that you attend as a guest. This should give you a pretty good insight into how they operate and it will guide you and show you how you should do things as well.

Opt to use natural light, if it is possible for you to do so.

Most of the wedding photographers out there will always go for natural light over any other kind of lighting any time of the day and you should make sure that you do so as well. When you use flash photography, you end up startling the people that you are trying to photograph. It’s not something that comes out looking great in the photos that you are able to produce. More than that, it can also be blinding at times. Unless you would like to end up with batch after batch of pictures that have people squinting in them because of the flash, then you might as well proceed to tone it done a little and opt for the more visually engaging natural light.

Candid shots are something that are next to impossible to attain when you are using artificial light.

This is because it can only come off as something that is a little too obvious when you are shooting photos of people. They become a little too aware that they are being photographed. They can’t help it but to react in such a way wherein they attempt to compose themselves or arrange their hair and the like so that they can look good in the pictures. This is particularly true for women in general. Flash photography will give you away whereas natural light can give you the added advantage of not being noticed right of the bat.

Give people a break every now and then as well.

Try to capture objects or any other inanimate features of the wedding venue that may catch your eye one way or the other. Try to have a better look at flower arrangements or place settings or mantelpieces, and so on and so forth. These shots can turn out to look really great in your portfolio and more than that, it can give people a little more time to relax, knowing that they are not being scrutinized by your camera all of the time.

Aspect of failing

What wedding photographers should prepare for all of the time is the aspect of failing in the beginning. You will not really be able to come in with a bang. There will be so many challenges and so many failures that may come along the way that if you are unable to prepare yourself for it, you may end up being extremely disappointed and frustrated up to a point wherein you will end up quitting for all of the wrong reasons.

The truth of the matter is that wedding photographers will have to go through a lot of things before they will even get a chance to have some modicum of success somewhere along the way and that is something that you should also brace yourself for the moment that you decide to get into this one way or the other.

Not earn a lot at first

In the firs two years or so of your career, you will not really have a lot of clients and you will not earn a lot. You are going to have to find a way to make things sustainable so that you will be able to make it through the tough times one way or the other. During this particularly tough time wherein you don’t really have a lot of people booking you just yet, work on growing your portfolio by shooting personal projects on the side or by offering to assist other more experienced wedding photographers or by taking side jobs.

Gain experience

Take on anything and everything that might help you gain the kind of experience that you need as well as help you grow your portfolio at some point or so. Things will eventually happen for you. There are some unique instances wherein they are able to get the ball rolling the moment that the decide to become wedding photographers but it doesn’t happen to everyone. It is still important for you to make sure that you are able to go ahead and brace yourself for the worst of the worst at the end of the day.

Secure other source of income

And speaking of making things sustainable for you, you should make it a point to secure some other source of income other than what you are expecting to make out of your wedding photography career. Although you will have to wait out your first big break, you need to keep in mind of the fact that when it all comes down to it, your rent as well as the rest of all of your other bills will not. You can do away with all of the pressure as well as with the rest of the other worries that you might have by maintaining a job on the side. Getting a job will really take most of the edge away and more than that, at least you will have something to keep you busy all throughout the time that you don’t really have anything to do just yet. Keeping another job will also ensure that you get to expand your social circles so you have more chances to network.